The early 20th century is such a dramatic time for art. Perhaps the most change-filled era in the entire history of art. All the rules are broken. Indeed, pushing the boundaries of what is art and what are the boundaries seems to be at the core of the change. Surely the two World Wars are pivotal in that. The inter-war period is full of agony at the losses of the first war, hope for the future, then foreboding of what was yet to come.
In this era Swiss-German painter Paul Klee emerges. Originally pushed towards music, by his music-teacher father, and singer mother, the compulsively sketching youth evolves into a pivotal figure in visual art.
He's 21 at the turn of the century, just completing a fine arts degree in Munich, and then moves off with friends to study the old masters in Italy.
After a few years of carousing he marries, and then fails at being a magazine illustrator. Said to struggle with successful use of colour, Klee will later have a pivotal experience to suddenly make it work for him. "The Artist at the Window" is a 1909 self-portrait I quite like from his early work. It's recognizably him, but has layer of distortion and focuses on the interplay of dark and light more than the forms.
When he joins another publication, he there meets Wassily Kandinsky and a key piece of the Klee future is in place. Kandinsky's strength in abstraction, and pushing the boundaries of art, is influential on many artists, let alone those close to him.
Klee delves further into the abstract. Remember we're at the end of the impressionist era, and moving parallel to the more broadly pleasing and populist Art Nouveau that emerged from the commercial art of the time
In 1914 Klee has a pivotal trip to Tunis and is inspired by the light and colour of the place that quickly takes over his life.
"Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after
it, I know that it has hold of me forever... Color and I are one. I am a
painter." - a pithy quote attributed to the artist, gleaned from Wikipedia.
His piece "In the style of Kairouan" is the first that comes out of that experience.
In the first war he is conscripted into the German infantry, but his work continues to explore the abstract.
A well known piece of his emerges in his military years - this one is "The death of the Idea" from 1915. Interesting too, is that while Klee avoids combat, he is involved in painting camouflage on airplanes. Another influence, perhaps, on his style?
I wonder too about the influence of Klee's sense of identity on his art. Even though born in Switzerland he isn't granted citizenship until after his death. In his genre, not too far removed from what we'd today sometimes call "outsider art," one wonders if that disconnection with one's homeland is a key element.
He works at the famous Bauhaus school with Kandinsky for a decade, and there works with bookbinding, stained glass, and mural workshops.
The stained-glass connection is one I see constantly in his work. From the vibrant light-infused colours to the heavy contours.
His "Woman in a Peasant Dress" at right, is a 1940 work, the last year of his life, but is very indicative of his stained-glass-like pieces.
And the prescient Klee creates a piece called "The Twittering Machine"
from 1922. How can I help but post this picture to Twitter? Turn the
crank and we tweet, retweet and like?
Klee was experimental with his media as well. Using both watercolours and oils in a single piece, but also things like jute, and wallpaper paste and newsprint.
His sense of exploration and capturing child-like simplicity while layering in profound ideas of life, death and society are often commented upon in analyses. At the end of the day though, abstract art, and naive art in particular is in the eye of the beholder. It is, for some, easy to dismiss an abstract piece as simplistic, but this is the perennial criticism of work that is fundamental and game-changing.
Once it has been created, it seems obvious and (on the surface) even trivial. However the ability of the artist to conceive the work, and present it to us, and the fact that nobody had previous had 'that' to say, is where the depth and talent is embodied.
In the lead up to WWII, experimental and abstract art is not well received by Hitler's minions. With the rise of Nazis power, Klee's art is branded "degenerate" by the ever-tolerant and pleasant powers that be. More than 100 of his works were siezed by the Nazis.
The three-panel piece in vibrant oranges and earth tones is "Temple Gardens" from 1920. The landscape elements and buildings are only hinted at here. It's colour and geometry that take centre stage. The colours are again vibrant and probably representative of the setting sun's light. The colours too might remind one of a Cezanne landscape or Gaugain's depictions of sunlit scenes in Tahiti.
Perhaps my favourite piece from Klee is his "Characters in Yellow" (1937) shown a the left.
These look to me like Japanese characters and in that the work is rather suggests to the European audience anyway - look, here is something that is using a new vocabulary.
It's a visual vocabulary of colour and shape. Or at least the building blocks of a vocabulary, like the letters which build a word or a phrase. The palette of warm oranges and yellows contrasting with the black lines (more stained-glass influences?) and say something different than if he used another part of the colour spectrum, and chose other characters. What the colours say to you, and what the characters say to someone else, each viewer is different, and brings a different set of experience, culture and knowledge to a situation.
Clothing manufacturers for years have borrowed from the Klee body of work. Probably almost as much as they do from Mondrian.
The other, related, thing that keeps striking me is that his art should be adopted by a quilt manufacturer. Indeed, modern quilt makers are often rather decent artists in their own genre. The colour, abstraction and geometry used by Klee a century ago must surely appeal to people that work in that art form.
There are many examples I'd like to pull up around my ears on a cold night. At left is "Red Balloon" from 1922
Klee dies in 1940, from an degenerative tissue disease that gradually saps his strength and ends his life. He still creates some important pieces in his final year. His music-teacher father also died that year, I notice, though I don't see any detail about the timing between the two events.
Paul Klee's "Chosen Site" from 1940 is another strong piece from his final year. A landscape composed of the sorts of forms and colours he explored in earlier years and a heavy red sun at the end of the day perhaps. His colours are much more muted here, from those years of glowing vibrant stained-glass-like compositions.
Klee leaves an amazing legacy - a large number of completed pieces and a style that continually evolved. One has the sense of flood of inspiration that he would never manage to get through exploring before time ran out.
